If you have a Complaint

British Waterways is committed to providing excellent levels of service. We are constantly striving to meet the rising expectations of our customers and visitors, and we welcome feedback on where our services and facilities can be improved or where expectations have not been met.

Issues of concern to waterways visitors can usually be resolved by talking them through with one of our staff, either face-to-face or by telephone. However, we recognise that sometimes this may not be appropriate, or you may feel your concerns have not been properly addressed after talking them through with us.

We actively encourage waterway visitors to use our Complaints Procedure so that issues and concerns can be raised with British Waterways' senior management and addressed appropriately. Here we explain how our Complaints Procedure works, what you need to do and what you can expect. There are two levels - Local and Corporate.

Local Level (1st Level)

If we haven't reasonably met your expectations or you wish to make a complaint relating to services or facilities provided on one of our waterways, you should write in the first instance to the general manager or director for that area of the waterway network. If you are in any doubt about which general manager or director you should write to, one of our staff will be happy to advise you. Just call 01923 201120 or email enquiries.hq@britishwaterways.co.uk.

In expressing concerns it is helpful to include all relevant details such as location(s), date(s), people contacted and the other circumstances relating to your complaint. This helps us to quickly and fully understand the nature of your complaint and begin our investigations.

Once we have received your complaint the general manager, director or one of his/her colleagues will acknowledge receipt of your letter in writing. You can normally expect a full written response within 15 working days of this acknowledgement. Our aim is to resolve the complaint to your complete satisfaction at the Local Level.

If your complaint does not relate to a local waterway but to one of British Waterways' central department services, please write in the first instance to Jonathan Bryant, Head of Customer Service, British Waterways, 64 Clarendon Road, Watford, WD17 1DA, phone him on 01923 201155, or email jonathan.bryant@britishwaterways.co.uk, outlining your complaint and asking for it to be considered in the first stage of the complaints process. He will acknowledge your complaint and arrange for a response within 15 working days.

Corporate Level (2nd Level)

If, after receiving our response at the Local Level, you feel that your concerns have not been fully addressed, you can ask for your complaint to be referred to the Corporate Level of our Complaints Procedure.

Please contact Jonathan Bryant, Head of Customer Service, British Waterways, 64 Clarendon Road, Watford, WD17 1DA,  phone him on 01923 201155, or email jonathan.bryant@britishwaterways.co.uk and request that your complaint be referred to the Corporate Level. He will acknowledge your request and pass your correspondence, with any other supporting evidence, to a British Waterways executive director who does not have direct line management responsibility for the area of your complaint. This helps to ensure that your concerns are dealt with fairly and on the merits of the case you present.

You can normally expect a full written response to your complaint within 15 working days of our acknowledgement of the complaint reaching the Corporate Level. It may be necessary for an executive director without day-to-day knowledge of the area of your complaint to request further information from local employees or from parties with an external relationship to BW. When this is necessary, and we feel it may not be possible to respond to your complaint within 15 working days, we will contact you again. We will explain our reasons for asking for a time extension and seek your approval. You may refuse this request.

NB - at the Local and Corporate Levels of the Complaints Procedure you can expect a written response within 15 working days of our acknowledgement of your complaint. You can request that the complaint be moved to the next level of the complaints process should British Waterways fail to meet this commitment.